Columbine High School Could Be Torn Down to Thwart "Morbid Fascination" By Potential Copycats

BY SOPHIE LEWIS

JUNE 7, 2019 / 2:20 PM / CBS NEWS

Twenty years after the 1999 massacre that claimed the lives of 13 students and teachers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, officials are considering tearing down the school and building a new one. Superintendent Jason Glass said he fears the school remains a source of "morbid fascination" and an "inspiration" for gun violence.

Glass calls them "Columbiners" — people obsessed with the shooting who seek out the school for inspiration or curiosity. After two decades of dealing with the aftermath of one of the world's most notorious mass shootings, Glass is asking the Jefferson County community whether the school should be torn down completely.

"Perhaps influenced by the 20th anniversary of the shooting, over the past 11 months the number of people trying to enter the school illegally or otherwise trespassing on school property has been increasing — now to record levels," Glass wrote in an open letter to the community Thursday. "Since the morbid fascination with Columbine has been increasing over the years, rather than dissipating, we believe it is time for our community to consider this option for the existing Columbine building."

Glass told CBS Denver, "We have hundreds of people who try to enter the building or walk onto the grounds or slow-roll by it. We even have tour buses of people that stop outside Columbine High School."